The Treaty of Versailles

Refused to allow either defeated German or Communist Russia to participate in peace conference negotiations, forced Germany to sign a war-guilt clause that was used to justify imposing large war reparations payments; changed map of Europe, created league of nations, left legacy of bitterness. Jan 10,1920

Appeasement

The Munich Conference

- Hitler took Austria and Czechoslovaki, Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles in appeasement...where Chamberlin had said something along the lines of "I have secured peace in our time" as he waved a peace of paper (famous photo).

Dunkirk

The Battle of Britain

Is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF).

The Battle of the Atlantic

The German goal during this battle was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Hitler knew that if he cut that lifeline Britain would be starved into submission. The Allies responded to the German's raids against ships along U.S. East Coast by organizing their cargo ships into convoys (groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection). Launching of Allied ships began to outnumber sinkings. Allies Won.

The Lend-Lease Program

Under the Lend-Lease Program, President Roosevelt authorized the sale of surplus military equipment to the Allies. The Lend-Lease Program was used primarily to help Great Britain and the Soviet Union resists Nazi Germany.

Pearl Harbor

7:50-10:00 AM, December 7, 1941 - Surprise attack by the Japanese on the main U.S. Pacific Fleet harbored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii destroyed 18 U.S. ships and 200 aircraft. American losses were 3000, Japanese losses less than 100. In response, the U.S. declared war on Japan and Germany, entering World War II.

December 7, 1941

The Bataan Death March

began on April 9, 1942, was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000-80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. All told, approximately 2,500-10,000 Filipino and 100-650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach their destination at Camp O'Donnell. The reported death tolls vary, especially amongst Filipino POWs, because historians cannot determine how many prisoners blended in with the civilian population and escaped. The march went from Mariveles, Bataan, to San Fernando, Pampanga. From San Fernando, survivors were loaded to a box train and they were brought to Camp O'Donnell in Capas, Tarlac.

Auschwitz

El Alamein

British deny Germany of taking over the Suez Canal, Allied victory in October 1942 led by British general Bernard Montgomery and supported by U.S. tanks that repelled Germans back into Tunisia. They halted German advance in North Africa

Operation Overlord

D-Day

(FDR) , June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which "we will accept nothing less than full victory." More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day's end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy.

The Yalta Conference

The Battle of the Bulge

The December 1944 German offensive that marked hitler's last chance to stop the allied advance, AKA Battle of the Ardennes started on December 16, 1944. planned by the Germans was to split the British and American Allied line in half, capturing Antwerp and then proceeding to encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis's favor. The "bulge" refers to the salient the Germans initially put into the Allies' line of advance. the most bloody of the comparatively few European battles American forces experienced in WWII, the 19,000 American dead

Midway

A famous battle which was turning point where American naval forces defeated Japanese naval forces the Americans sank 4 Japanese aircraft carriers. Fought very close to Hawaii in 1942, an American victory that saved Hawaii from Japanese takeover

Guadalcanal

Tarawa

second time the United States was on the offensive (the Battle of Guadalcanal had been the first); and the first offensive in the critical central Pacific region; also the first time in the war that the United States faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing

Mt. Suribachi

Okinawa

The last offensive battle of WWII. U.S. Army in the Pacific had been pursuing an "island-hopping" campaign, moving north from Australia towards Japan. On April 1, 1945, they invaded Okinawa. By the time the fighting ended on June 2, 1945, the U.S. had lost 50,000 men and the Japanese 100,000.

The United Nations

Joseph Stalin

Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Soviet Communists after Lenin, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953. He led the Soviet Union with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush opposition

Adolph Hitler

A very crude leader that took advantage of a disillusioned and depression-stricken nation. After the Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for WWI, lead the nation into WWII under the "big lie." In 1932 the nazis had become the largest political party. came to power legally in 1933. used his new power to turn Germany into a totalitarian state. he took propaganda to a new level. He enforced the secret police. His hatred of the jews, or anti-Semitism, was a key part of nazi ideology. Hitler led to the way and leaded the Holocaust.

Neville Chamberlain

Winston Churchill

Britain's new prime minister during WWII who pleaded for US aid, rallied the British with his speeches, infectious confidence, and bulldog determination; known for his "iron curtain" speech; agreed Hitler should be conquered; was thrown out by his own people.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

(1882-1945) Thirty-second president of the United States; he was elected president four times. He led the United States during the major crises of the Great Depression and declared war on Japan in World War II.

Douglas Macarthur

Allied commander and five star general in the U.S. army. he accepted Japan's surrender in 1945 headed the U.S. army in Japan and Korea but was fired by Truman for questioning the actions of his superiors in the midst of the Korean war.

Erwin Rommel

German field marshall "Desert Fox"-May 1942; German and Italian armies were led by him and attacked British occupied Egypt and the Suez Canal for the second time; were defeated at the Battle of El Alamein; was moved to France to oversee the defenses before D-Day; tried to assassinate Hitler.,

Bernard Montgomery

Dwight D. Eisenhower

leader of the Allied forces in Europe during WW2--leader of troops in Africa and commander in DDay invasion-elected president-president during integration of Little Rock Central High School when Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, Republican; Domino Theory established, Cold War deepened, sent US military advisors to Vietnam; and created the Interstate Highway System (for purposes of national defense)

Chester Nimitz

Nimitz served as an Admiral in the Battle of Midway in 1942. He commanded the American fleet in the Pacific Ocean and learned the Japanese plans through "magic" decoding of their radio messages. With this intercepted information, Nimitz headed the Japanese off and defeated them.

Harry S. Truman

Succeeded FDR upon his death. Led the country through the last few months of World War II, and made the controversial decision to use two atomic bombs against Japan in August 1945. After the war, he was crucial in the implementation of the Marshall Plan, which greatly accelerated Western Europe's economic recovery. Created the CIA

What started World War II?

Hitler's invasion of Poland: Often blamed on the Versailles Treaty and how Germany was essentially the main power of the time to be "fined" for the start of WW1, which in turn lead to tensions that boiled until the outbreak of WW2...